The Environmental Memory: Man and Architecture in the Landscape of Ideas

by Malcolm Quantrill

Memory begins in our first room, we climb into it on our first stair, we nourish it with views from our first window. Images of these beginnings of consciousness are the basis for our dreams and aspirations. Malcolm Quantrill discusses how we experience, explore and memorize the spaces, forms and details of architecture and the city. In the process, he argues, we develop an environmental memory that enables us not only to respond to existing monuments and urban frameworks but also to invent new ones; because this special memory forms links with history, experience and aspirations. Through his wide-ranging, multi-faceted review of architectural and urban contexts Quantrill succeeds in bringing a radical perspective to the study of architecture.

214 pages, Hardcover

First published December 12, 1986